


The Plate

by Elenhin



Category: The Almighty Johnsons
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-05
Updated: 2013-12-05
Packaged: 2018-01-03 13:35:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1071067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elenhin/pseuds/Elenhin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aramirandme81 wrote the A Thread of Truth, and, that story gave me two ideas. This is the second one. The first one will come later. </p>
<p>What started the idea was the basic plotline of the A Thread of Truth, which is as follows, <br/>After an argument Valerie sent Anders to his room, then proceeded to take the family out to pizza, leaving Anders behind and this made Axl contemplate saving some in a napkin to bring home to Anders. Ty, remarked that perhaps it would be easier said than done for Axl to save, becuase last time he nearly ate the plate. </p>
<p>This is what I started thinking on the concept that Axl might not stop eating when he hits the plate....</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Plate

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aramirandme81](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aramirandme81/gifts).



> It is probably best to read A Thread of Truth first, and it is also strongly recomended. 
> 
> Also, as always, huge thanks to Aramirandme81 for allowing me to do this. I hope you enjoy it.

The Plate

 

Normally Mike would not let the kids get away with eating and then running off without clearing off the table after themselves. Normally they knew better than to even attempt doing so. He had better things to do than to clean up after three younger brothers, or two, or one and a half really. It was hard to define how to count it.   
  
He had three younger brothers, Anders, Ty and Axl, but Anders never left any evidence behind. When he got up Mike would swear the table was cleaner than when he sat down, there was never as much as a trace. Not a crumb, not a spot of grease and not a single drop of milk. If Anders sat down to eat a snack after school you would never know.

 

Ty only ever left a modest amount of crumbs. You could tell he had been there and he had eaten, but it would take a serious investigation to figure out what. On occasion there would be the telltale spot of peanut butter or maybe a drop of juice.   
  
Axl, oh Axl was a different matter. If he had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the kitchen, Mike would find bread crumbs in the hallway, jam in the bathroom and peanut butter on the floor in Ty’s and Anders’ room, and this in spite of the fact that he sat at the table to eat it and washed his hands in the skink when he was done.

 

He had long ago accepted the fact that there were mysteries he would never have the answer to, and this was one of them. It was amusing in a way, or would be except he would have to clean up after Axl.

 

The only time he had been forced to clean up after Anders was really when he had not cleaned up after Axl.

 

Val had made a snack for Axl, a plate of marmalade toast that he took to the couch to watch some cartoon show. He’d walked straight there, and yet Mike had seen a large dollop of marmalade on the floor. It was no where near where Axl was, and he couldn’t figure out how it got there, but he figured it was better to wait until Axl was done.

 

Anders however was going through a phase when he was actually eating. He was consuming for him huge amounts of food, and for anyone else, quite normal amounts but Mike was pleased and wasn’t about to stop him. Of course Val didn’t have time to make him a snack but Mike gave him the go ahead to grab whatever he could find in the fridge. Unlike Val who didn’t want him to raid the fridge as she claimed he might ruin his appetite Mike didn’t worry about that. He was more concerned Anders would stop eating again so anything he ate was good.

 

He had loaded up a plate with leftovers and was about to take it to his room to do homework while he ate. Something Mike allowed though normally they had a no food in the room rule. Val had okayed Axl watching cartoons while he ate, so he saw no reason not to allow Anders take the plate to his room. Unlike Axl, Anders could be trusted not to leave any scraps behind.

 

It was the marmalade on the floor that ruined it, Anders slipped in it and the plate went flying together with a glass of milk while he sat down hard enough to make Mike wince. Axl turned around to giggle while Anders sat simply staring at frst. Mike couldn’t blame him, he could tell it must have been something of a shock to him to suddenly find himself on the floor, leftovers in his hair an all over the floor around him.

 

Mike had made sure he hadn’t hurt himself, then sent him off to the shower before he started to clean it up. Partially because he simply felt sorry for him, but also becuase he felt a little guilty not having cleaned up the marmalade right away.   
  
The plate had been broken, something Val had not been happy about but Mike had not really understood why that mattered. It was just a plate.

 

Now he was looking at another broken plate, and he simply could not understand it. Anders was long since back to his habit of barely eating. Ty was like any other kid his age, sometimes eating more and sometimes less.   
  
Axl was something like a human vacuum cleaner pointed towards food.

 

Ty would say he normally didn’t stop shoveling food into his mouth until he ran into the plate and then he nearly ate that to.

 

That was why Mike could not stop looking at the plate, it was the one Axl had used, and there was a piece missing…..

 

There was a small crescent moon piece missing from the plate.

 

He couldn’t believe it and really had to look twice, but there was a piece missing, a bite sized sliver of the plate.

 

He’d let them go off, declaring he’d clean of the table. Anders had recently been sick and had a hard time catching up again so Mike figured he could use all the extra time studying he could get, and had even promised to take his turn of doing the dishes. Ty was going to help a friend rake their yard for a few dollars and Axl wanted to get back to playing with Zeb, so Mike had sent them all off.

 

Now he was starting to regret it.

 

How could there be a piece missing from the plate?   
  
Axl really could not, he simply could not, or could he?

 

In desperation he knelt down to peer under the table. There, under Ty’s seat was a broken piece of plate, under Anders chair lay two more. Putting them together made up the piece that was missing from the plate.

 

Upon closer inspection he also saw that there were a few more cracks in the plate. Obviously it had taken a knock too many and had cracked under pressure.

 

Apparently Axl had not noticed the plate getting smaller but had continued eating, which was not really surprising. Axl could be really oblivious to such things. Now, Anders would have noticed, and probably refused to touch food for a week from fear he’d be eating pieces of plate. Ty would at least have noticed. Axl, no, he just continued to eat.

  
Throwing the pieces away he could not help but feel a bit silly, worrying that Axl really hadn’t stopped eating at the plate, on the other hand, anyone who knew Axl would worry about the same thing he comforted himself…   
  
The End

 

Please comment, the Cricket is hungry, and please read A Thread of Truth.... It's more than worth it... :D 


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